The present invention relates to a coaxial-type carbon dioxide gas laser oscillator.
More widespread use of lasers requires that they be of high performance and smaller in size while being capable of operating in a single fundamental mode. Coaxial-type lasers, in which three axes, that is, the optical axis of a resonator, the direction in which an electrical discharge takes place or a DC electric field is applied, and the direction in which a laser gas flows, are aligned with each other, have been designed to enable the laser gas to flow at high speeds for gaining highperformance operation of the laser. However, mere attempts to cause the gas to travel rapidly through a discharge tube have proven unsuccessful in achieving high performance of the laser. For example, prior pin-shaped anodes have prevented a gas stream from being symmetrically distributed around an optical axis of the oscillator, thus failing to carry out laser operation in a fundamental mode. The pin-shaped anodes are also disadvantageous in that they allow areas to be created in the discharge tube which are not responsible for an electrical discharge in the gas in the discharge tube. Furthermore, known laser oscillators have relatively large gas blower for maintaining the gas flow properly disturbed and accomplishing a stable discharge in the gas.